100 R. Chambers, Esq., on Glacial Phenomena 



Ullapool. Such too are the moraines which confine Lochs 

 Whorral and Brandy. On lately visiting for the first time 

 the well-known Loch Skene in Dumfriesshire, which resembles 

 the above two lakes in situation, I found it to be formed by a 

 moraine of this order. The hills are here about 2600 feet 

 high, being the loftiest in Scotland south of the Forth. In a 

 south looking recess, backed by a lofty wall of bare rock, and 

 on a platform which cannot be less than 1200 feet above the 

 sea lies this celebrated lake, hemmed in towards the south by 

 a bewildering number of hillocks and ridges of gray coarse 

 drift, the manifest spoils of the ice which once filled the 

 recess. In front of a similar sinus to the westward, we have 

 the same lines and humps of detritus ; but the water has there 

 made a passage for itself and escaped. This passage is as 

 clearly defined as a gate in a wall or a drain in a field. 



In the Island of Arran, near the mouth of the valley of Loch 

 Ranza, and not more than fifty feet above the sea, there is a 

 line of detritus of, perhaps, a furlong in length, and cut down 

 by an opening in the centre. It faces to a north-looking 

 recess in the hills, and is doubtless the moraine of the glacier 

 (if it can be so called) which once filled that recess. The 

 intervening space, which is of no great extent, is now occu- 

 pied by a morass. 



To this class of objects, which are also very common in 

 Scotland, the name of Recess Moraines might perhaps be 

 considered appropriate. 



For the satisfaction of English geologists., few of whom may 

 have opportunities of going over my ground in Scotland, it is 

 well that I can point to an object in England bearing all the 

 characteristics of a moraine. It is not of the terminal kind, 

 like those in the Ben Macdui valley of Glen Dearg, but a very 

 perfect example of a lateral moraine, or moraine left on the 

 side of a glacier. I must transport my readers to the centre 

 of the Lake District, where occurs the well-known col or pass 

 named Dunmailraise, 720 feet above the level of the sea. 

 Valleys descending from the adjacent mountain range, in- 

 cluding the Langdale Pikes, and Borrowdale Fells, — go, one 

 to the east by Grassmere, and another to the west by Thirl- 

 mere, leaving the cross valley or valley of passage, of which 

 Dunmailraise is the summit, extending about four miles be- 



